SIDELINES...

CURTAINS FOR PESSIMIST

Bob Rogers, a well-known figure at Speakers’ Corner in London, has died aged 75. A Notting Hill resident and champion of civil liberties, he had been a fixture in Hyde Park since 1963. Known as Bob Doom, he wore a placard with a headline taken from a newsstand in Piccadilly in 1991 that read: “IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE”. Sun, 19 Jan 2021.

TRANSPORT WHIZZ

Six-year-old Nathan HenryMcGhie has leant the 152-page Highway Code off by heart and can name all the stops on the London Underground. He was diagnosed with autism in February 2021, has a photographic memory and a fascination with transport. “When he was two, he could count up to 100,” said his proud mother. Sun, 6 Nov 2021.

CALF PORTENT

A calf born with two heads in Panega village, Rajnandgaon in central India, was inundated with worshippers who left gifts. Each head had two eyes, but the creature had only three ears. Metro, Sun, 10 Sept 2020.

TALE OF THE TAPE

A 79-year-old Thai man complaining of stomach pains was scheduled for surgery to remove a tumour. A gastroscopy was conducted beforehand, but when the camera was removed, it was found to be attached to a tapeworm that had been living in the man’s intestines. As surgeons kept pulling, the worm was revealed to be a full 2m (6.5ft) in length. Tapeworms can occur after the consumption of uncooked pork, beef or buffalo meat. thaivisa.com, 5 Feb 2021.

HAUNTED SCHOOLROOM

When a building at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham was brought back into use due to Covid distancing measures, pupils felt a sense of dread and heard knocking. A porter saw a statue move. In the classroom below, Mary Bridgeman, 16, said: “We regularly hear a sudden gust of wind in the corridor outside, then the door’s flung open.” The girls have started an investigation. D.Telegraph, 21 Dec 2020.